Cameroon’s military has arrested several Boko Haram militants and 25 of their female accomplices who were attempting to supply food and weapons for fighters in Nigeria.
Alban Toupo, the commander of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, the Cameroon military unit fighting the Boko Haram insurgency in the border town of Kolofata, said 31 people, including 25 women, were arrested while transporting ammunition, food, material to fabricate explosive devices, torches, drugs, and medications to Nigeria in small quantities.
The arrested are part of an elaborate network that smuggles food and weapons to a fighter by using women and children of fighters in Nigeria under pretenses of visiting relatives.
The commander said his troops had protected the women and children without knowing they were either fighters or accomplices but arrested them following a tip from the population.
Additionally, the women are said to be recruiting the suicide bombers and fighters for the Boko Haram to mount attacks in the border areas between Nigerian and Cameroon.
Soldiers from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad, and Niger, as part of the multi-national joint task force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, rolled back Boko Haram gains and announced the terrorist group was living its last moments last year, but the insurgency switched to terror attacks and remains a threat.
